Chapter 88
Qiao Ning had no idea what it felt like to be sucked into a vortex in the real world; all she knew was that she felt like she had fallen into a washing machine. She was being tossed and turned by the swirling water, making her dizzy and disoriented.
The whirlpool was terrifying not only for its powerful suction and water pressure, but also for its other strengths. However, she had a high-grade diving shield, so she wasn't afraid. Apart from feeling dizzy and nauseous from being spun around, she was alright.
Qiao Ning felt like she had been in a "washing machine" for an eternity. Finally, the water enveloping her gradually slowed its rotation, and then a force from who-knows-where pushed her forcefully. She clearly felt that the space around her had become much wider, no longer cramped or oppressive.
She was now in complete darkness, not because of a visual problem, but because there was no light source in the space and she couldn't see anything.
Qiao Ning took out the lighting equipment from her storage, only to find it unusable. It seemed there was a problem with the magnetic field here, rendering the electric lighting equipment unusable.
"Binglin? How are you? Are you alright?" Qiao Ning patted the dog in her arms.
Ice Scale let out a low whimper, its voice sounding weak and feeble. And to make matters worse, it couldn't see anything at the moment. Qiao Ning didn't know what was wrong with it and could only worry anxiously.
After a moment, Qiao Ning suddenly thought of the strange fire. She tried using the strange fire, and it actually illuminated an area.
The tinder was usable, but there weren't many. Qiao Ning had brought many lighting tools, but only three tinders. She hadn't originally planned to bring them, but then she thought that in case of an emergency and the lighting tools couldn't be used, she would pack a few more strange tinder.
With only three sparks, it certainly won't last long. But she has a low-level talent as a spark merchant, which she obtained from a wish box before the extreme cold catastrophe. Now, she can create sparks herself every so often.
This space is peculiar; if you use the Strange Fire Seed for lighting here, one seed can provide illumination for about an hour. After using a time-limited item like the Strange Fire Seed, you can see the remaining time in your system inventory. So, how long it lasts is immediately clear.
The strange fire illuminated a small area, at most about three meters around him.
After regaining her sight, Qiao Ning quickly looked down at Bing Lin in her arms. She saw that the dog's limbs were limp, its eyelids were drooping, and it looked listless. It seemed to be very uncomfortable.
Qiao Ning tried to lift it up slightly to check for any injuries, but as soon as she moved, Ice Scales spat out with a "whoosh".
Even so, considering its owner's love of cleanliness, it strained its head to spit all the filth onto the ground, without getting a single drop on Qiao Ning's clothes.
Qiao Ning immediately understood that Bing Lin had been vomited by the "washing machine".
She herself felt terrible, but she held back from vomiting. Perhaps this was the first time Icescale had ever suffered like this, or even the first time in its life it had vomited, which is why its reaction was so strong.
Qiao Ning gave it water to rinse its mouth and then took out a few anti-nausea pills. Anti-diarrheal and anti-nausea medications could be obtained from loot boxes during natural disaster cycles, and were also available in Lu Di City. Generally, medicine was an essential resource before Qiao Ning went into dungeons, and she always made sure to have a portion of each type.
She didn't know if the medicine would work on Icescale, but it shouldn't make it feel worse.
Fortunately, Binglin stopped vomiting shortly after taking the pills and looked noticeably more energetic.
Qiao Ning knew it was a dog with obsessive-compulsive disorder about cleanliness, so she took out some water and used it to wash and rinse its mouth.
Half an hour later, Ice Scale had regained its previous lively appearance, and when it saw its own vomit, it would wrinkle its furry face in disgust.
Qiao Ning breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps all pet owners are like this; sometimes they would rather be sick themselves than see their beloved pet suffering.
Moreover, to Qiao Ning, Binglin wasn't exactly a pet, but rather a close comrade-in-arms. Before, Binglin relied on her more, but now, Qiao Ning was somewhat unsure who relied on whom more.
They are now like an inseparable whole; it's unimaginable for any one of them to be separated from the other.
Qiao Ning subconsciously refused to think about the issue of "separation".
As soon as Binglin regained its strength, it struggled to jump out of Qiao Ning's arms. Qiao Ning was afraid that it would struggle too much and fall to the ground, so she could only quickly let go and let it get down on its own.
"What kind of place is this..." Qiao Ning tried to use the light of the flames to observe her surroundings, but found that this place was really strange. She couldn't see the top or the sides.
You can see the "ground" under your feet.
The ground was rather strangely colored, a purplish-red, with eerie grooves and patterns on it.
Not only that, the ground was also excessively damp and sticky. Even through the air membrane, Qiao Ning could still feel the wet, sticky, and soft texture under her feet.
Ice Scales also disliked the ground, so it didn't make direct contact with it when it jumped down. Now it's flying in the air, and a pair of golden-red wings have appeared on its back, dazzling and very beautiful.
Qiao Ning was already used to its frequent changes of outfits and disguises, so she didn't care.
Because she was unsure of any dangers, and because the strange fire's illumination range was limited, Qiao Ning dared not walk too fast.
Ice Scale flew around, surveying its surroundings. Its eyes could see in the dark, so it didn't need any light. However, it wouldn't stray too far from Qiao Ning. Sometimes it would fly ahead, then turn back every minute to check if Qiao Ning was following. It was as if the dog was worried sick about its owner getting lost; it was truly concerned.
Qiao Ning's timer stopped working, so she didn't know exactly how long she had walked. Maybe ten minutes? Or perhaps half an hour? An hour?
Qiao Ning still couldn't see the boundary of this space; instead, the ground would occasionally shake.
With no end in sight and no beginning in sight, being in such a silent space without light for a long time, where even the passage of time becomes unclear, is a real test of one's psychological endurance.
If it weren't for Bing Lin accompanying her, Qiao Ning might not be able to maintain such emotional stability right now.
"Ice Scale, do you still remember the way we came from?" No matter how intelligent and powerful humans become, they are still inferior to beasts in some aspects.
Ice Scale didn't nod immediately. Instead, it sniffed around, listened intently for a while, and then shook its head at Qiao Ning.
Qiao Ning received the signal it transmitted, "You mean the space here is constantly changing?"
"Is it alive?"
Binglin continued to shake his head, trying his best to convey his thoughts to Qiao Ning.
After a while, Qiao Ning finally understood what it meant: "Are you trying to tell me that this space is actually inside the body of a living being?"
"Or perhaps we're inside the stomach of some kind of creature?"
Ice Scale nodded firmly.
Qiao Ning subconsciously looked down at the "ground." The purplish-red color did indeed resemble the color of the abdominal wall of some kind of creature, and it was wet, sticky, and soft. This could not be "soil" at all; it was clearly the "flesh" of the abdominal wall.
Qiao Ning felt a chill run down her spine and wanted to leave this awful place immediately, but they had been brought here by the vortex in a daze. They didn't even know where the entrance or exit was.
Moreover, even if we find an "entrance," the real danger is finding an "exit" of some unknown creature.
The most serious issue isn't where the entrance and exit are, but rather what state this unknown creature is in.
If they're asleep, it means they're not in much danger right now. If they're awake, or about to wake up, they might cause some disturbance at any time, pushing the food into their stomachs for digestion. If it can't be digested, it will usually pass through the intestines and be expelled from the "exit."
This is definitely not what Qiao Ning wanted to happen.
When Qiao Ning first heard that she was inside some kind of creature's stomach, she did feel a bit disgusted and wanted to get out immediately. But now that she's calmed down and thought about it, she doesn't want to leave anymore.
The clue is "enter the Dragon's Breath," which most likely means that entering the Dragon's Breath is the only way to find the Law Stone.
No matter what dangers you encounter here, it's better than not being able to pass the level because you can't find the Law Stone.
The unknown creature doesn't seem to be moving anytime soon, and the "ground" is currently relatively flat and stable.
Qiao Ning stopped wandering around aimlessly and simply spread out several large alloy plates on the ground and sat down to rest.
If she remains number one in popularity tomorrow, we'll have new leads. It's not too late to act then.
Qiao Ning regretted not bringing the submarine into the whirlpool with her; otherwise, she could have rested inside the submarine right now.
Here, Qiao Ning couldn't accurately sense the speed of time passing; she could only roughly estimate what time it was outside.
After a long time, just as Qiao Ning finished her body tempering and was about to eat something, she suddenly felt the world around her begin to shake violently.
Qiao Ning didn't know where the surging "ground" had taken her, but when she used the strange fire to illuminate her surroundings again, she found herself in a very large space.
The space was vast, filled with a jumble of trash and the carcasses of rotten fish and shrimp. The walls writhed and secreted a green liquid that flowed down, instantly melting and decomposing the trash.
"This looks like that thing's stomach." Just what I feared most has come true. What if it finishes digesting everything and then expels her and the ice scales that it couldn't digest?
As Qiao Ning pondered what to do, she suddenly heard a loud crashing sound.
The sound was like the sound of a great river flowing, or like something surging.
Qiao Ning had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, not long after, Qiao Ning saw countless pieces of trash falling and surging down from above like a tsunami. Qiao Ning only had time to hug Bing Lin into her arms and put several layers of air membrane on her before she was submerged by the trash.
Qiao Ning was crushed into the stomach of an unknown creature by countless pieces of garbage. Its gastric juices seemed even more potent than the strong acid and liquid garbage itself. The air membrane, which could normally last at least four hours, quickly broke down under the corrosive effects of this gastric juices, lasting only a maximum of 40 minutes!
Fortunately, she had enough air membranes in stock, otherwise she might have really died here.
As most of the waste is digested and absorbed, some of it becomes a semi-liquid state.
Qiao Ning was struggling to move through the semi-liquid environment, separated by an air membrane.
She thought that if all else failed, she would have to plunge the Black Flame Bone Blade into the monster's stomach wall and use the force to stay inside. Then she would try to find a way out.
Not long after the monster moved, Qiao Ning saw the garbage surging in. Since it could be swallowed up so quickly, there must be an entrance. And it couldn't be far from the stomach.
Just as Qiao Ning was about to make Bing Lin fly higher to take her away from the bottom of her stomach, she suddenly saw something in the green gastric juice that had accumulated at the bottom of her stomach, emitting a faint glow.
Qiao Ning's heart skipped a beat. She quickly submerged into the gastric juices and desperately swam towards the thing. Just as she was about to grab it, the monster started moving again.
Qiao Ning gritted her teeth and charged forward, successfully getting the item in her hand, and summoned the Ice Scales in her mind.
Just as her stomach acid began to churn, Ice Scale appeared above her. Qiao Ning grabbed its claws and was lifted into the air by it.
"Flying Ice Scales, let's get out of here right now."
Even though Qiao Ning reacted quickly and used the ice scales to lift her away from the bottom of her stomach, she still felt a strong suction force a few seconds later, pulling them down.
Is this monster perhaps a rectal creature, needing to excrete after eating?
As if sensing a threat, Ice Scale's body grew uncontrollably larger and larger. At first, Qiao Ning could still hold onto its claws, but later she could only roll over onto its back and grab the mane around its neck.
The power of the ice scales was pulling against the monster.
Qiao Ning found herself still able to think about the monster's current situation even in her current state.
It must have felt discomfort in its stomach and was trying to expel the "foreign object," but the object wouldn't cooperate and wouldn't come out no matter what it did.
Qiao Ning was truly impressed with her own ability to think outside the box. The enlarged Ice Scale showed no fear whatsoever; as its wings grew larger, it flew upwards at an ever-increasing speed.
Finally, after a moment, Qiao Ning saw a glimmer of light, and Bing Lin carried her swiftly toward that light.
Along with them, some undigested garbage from the monsters also rushed out.
Qiao Ning turned to look at the monster and found that it was also looking at them.
It seemed puzzled as to why it would spit out its food.
Qiao Ning couldn't make out what the monster looked like. Its whole body was shrouded in black matter, with no clear outline. She could only barely make out where the head and tail were.
The monster was much larger than Qiao Ning had imagined. Her Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle was already a fairly large creature, but in front of this monster, the giant turtle still looked like a small toy turtle.
It's easy to imagine how terrifying this guy's size is.
The monster was still frugal with its food. Seeing that it had spat out the "food," it still didn't want to waste it. It opened its huge mouth, trying to swallow Qiao Ning and the others back in.
Qiao Ning had already obtained the item, so of course she wouldn't go into its stomach. She let the ice scale carry her and they swam rapidly, disappearing into the garbage-strewn sea in the blink of an eye.
Along the way, Qiao Ning didn't look back, but instead studied the things she had taken out of the monster's stomach.
It was an irregularly shaped, pitch-black stone that, apart from emitting a faint glow, showed no other remarkable features.
It's hard to imagine that this thing is the key to clearing the level—the Law Stone.
She had already obtained the Law Stone, but had not received any system notification.
If Qiao Ning hadn't seen those comments, she would definitely have been misled into thinking that this thing wasn't a Law Stone.
Now, she's more inclined to believe what the veteran players say: the Law Stone is corrupted. She needs to purify the Law Stone to complete the quest.
Of course, if it were someone else, it was indeed possible that this stone wasn't a Law Stone. But for someone as lucky as Qiao Ning, that possibility simply didn't exist.
Qiao Ning's journey from jumping into the whirlpool, falling into the monster's belly, and then emerging again seemed simple, but it was actually tortuous and time-consuming. She went in in the afternoon and came out in the afternoon as well.
When Qiao Ning got back to her car and checked the time, she realized that a full day and night had passed since she jumped into the vortex.
There are only a little over 800 players online!
Moreover, this number is decreasing rapidly.
Is someone massacring players? Probably not, because the Law Stone is in her hands now, and no one else has seen a glimpse of it. What's the point of killing each other?
Qiao Ning ignored those people and clicked on the video replay of today's host, number 1.
[This is the fourth day of the natural disaster. I'm really angry. How can there still be so many people? If it's really unbearable, I'll just give up on clearing the level and go back to Lu Di City.]
Yesterday's garbage cleanup went pretty well, although Qiao Ning did most of it, it was still completed. The others were really too lazy.
Okay, to prevent other players from becoming lazy and not actively cleaning up trash, starting today, if you don't meet the minimum daily trash-cleaning standard, you'll be assimilated by those cute little creatures and become a trash monster just like them!
[We've given you such obvious clues, how come no one has found the Law Stone yet?]
Don't forget, if the Law Stone isn't found by the seventh day, those who remain will be completely wiped out.
[It seems some people have questions about this rule? Then let's take a closer look at what I said on the first day of the disaster.]
This natural disaster cycle indeed has no time limit. However, it comes with conditions: the prerequisite is finding the Law Stone and having a chance to clear the stage.
"You guys haven't even managed to clear the level, let alone find the Law Stone. What's the point of you staying here? So you can only be annihilated."
I hope you can give me some surprises when I come tomorrow. That's all for now, I'm leaving.
On the fourth day after the natural disaster, the pollution assimilation process was 80%.
Today, all players must work together to clean up at least 500,000 tons of trash.
Each player must clean up at least 5,000 tons of trash today.
When Qiao Ningyi emerged from the sea of garbage, she noticed that there were significantly more mountains of garbage around her, and the sea of garbage seemed to be much denser.
At the same time, the stench in the air became more and more obvious, and even the air membrane could not block the smell.
Qiao Ning returned to the car, and the bullet screen was still lit up, with significantly more bullet comments than before! The screen was almost completely filled with densely packed bullet comments. She had to keep tapping on a particular bullet comment to stop all the scrolling comments before she could see the words clearly.
[Found it! She actually found the Law Stone with her eyes closed and jumped!]
[This can't be real, I don't believe there are people that lucky, sob sob. I don't believe it!]
[What's the use of finding it? She still can't clear the level. The fourth day is almost over. If she still can't purify the Law Stone by the seventh day, she'll definitely die.]
[I think Qiao Ning's special ability is to purify pollution, right? Maybe she could try purifying it herself.]
Don't be ridiculous. Her ability doesn't purify pollution; it devours and assimilates it, transforming its power into her own mutated ice ability.
But speaking of which, does anyone know why her ice ability mutated like that? The game is really something else; they only opened the live stream for us veteran players during the final trial, the Cataclysm. This means we miss a lot of information. In my opinion, they should have made the live stream function available from the very beginning of the game.
Qiao Ning's ability is somewhat similar to the primal abilities I've heard of. Every attribute has its own primal energy, the power to completely devour and assimilate other things—that kind of energy is terrifying. Moreover, it cannot be obtained from the outside; it depends entirely on personal comprehension. Players must personally experience and contemplate this primal energy from nature.
Upon seeing this, Qiao Ning suddenly realized how her unique ice ability came about. It was probably because after absorbing the power of the Ice River, she unconsciously evolved and comprehended an ice ability source energy that surpassed even the Ice River's from its strange energy.
She originally only knew that her energy was similar to that of the glacier, but there were differences.
[If it truly is primordial energy, then it's not surprising that it can devour pollution. Theoretically, primordial ice energy should definitely be able to purify the law stone, but the timeframe is uncertain; it might take a very long time to purify it successfully. It mainly depends on how strong Qiao Ning's power is.]
Putting everything else aside, where's that person who said they'd wash their hair upside down yesterday? Why don't you come out and say something?
[I also know a quick way to purify the Law Stone, but unfortunately it's useless for me to mention it here, and Qiao Ning can't see it anyway.]
[Hey bro, can you hurry up and say something? She can't see, but we can! You know you'll get your comeuppance if you only say half of what you mean?!]
[It's actually quite simple. Pollution comes from garbage. Once the garbage in this world is gone, the power of pollution will naturally disappear. The Law Stone will also return to normal.]
【What are you doing here? Well said, but don't say it again.】
Hearing your words is better than hearing them from a single conversation.
[Wait, I haven't finished yet. Cleaning up all the world's trash is obviously impossible, but what if we just destroy the world?]
Destroying this precarious world of natural disasters would be too easy; all it would take is slightly disrupting the balance between the garbage mountains and seas, and the polluted air. Or perhaps Qiao Ning could wait.
When the pollution assimilation process reaches 100%, this garbage world will naturally be destroyed. As long as you complete the game the instant the garbage world is destroyed, that's still completing the game.
This person's words...
Qiao Ning actually thought there was some truth to it.
The risks are high, but success is not impossible.
[No, why wait until this garbage world is destroyed when we can clearly purify the Law Stone?]
[Because these two processes cannot occur simultaneously, when the purification stone is contaminated, the amount of waste will decrease, and the process of assimilation of contamination will regress instead of progress.]
Qiao Ning now only has two choices: either purify the Law Stone herself, but the process will take an unknown amount of time, and she might be trapped in this garbage world for the rest of her life; or she can choose to go crazy and fight for survival!
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